A Supreme Experience

As some of you may know, I went to law school and practiced law for six years before I switched career paths. In law school, many of the cases we studied and debated were written by justices of the United States Supreme Court. As a result, it was hard for me not to think of the justices as larger than life. The names Holmes, Cardozo, Frankfurter and Black almost took on the same mythic quality as Bach, Beethoven, Brahms and Mozart have in the world of music.

Imagine if you are a Roman Catholic priest and you get to interview the Pope. That is kind of what it feels like to have been a lawyer and to interview a Supreme Court Justice — or even a former justice. Which is a long way of saying that I interviewed Sandra Day O’Connor last week and the interview airs tonight. I’ll share my personal impressions of her tomorrow. In the meantime, view our timeline of key events in her life and career.